Pizza, part II

My family enjoyed last week's pizza so much that we had pizza again tonight. I made a really yummy cheeseburger pizza and wanted to share it with you.

I followed the dough recipe found in the original pizza post. I made a thicker crust, approximately 3/4 inch thick, uncooked. I then topped in this order:
pizza sauce
garlic powder
dill relish
prepared mustard
parmessan
Wisconsin sharp cheddar and mozzarella cheeses
cooked ground beef
caramelized onions.

IT WAS FABULOUS!!! I made one without mustard and pickles for my picky husband and he told me it was the best pizza he had ever had. The caramelized onions really add depth to the pizza...I think the only thing that could have made this particular pizza better would have been a bit of bacon.

Pizza

I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner since I did not plan ahead and put anything out of the freezer. I thought about the scanty ingredients I had; I rarely get to the grocery these days, with 4 kids it's hard to find room in the cart for the food.

I realized I had everything I needed for pizza and this is a kid favorite. It's mostly a kid favorite because they get to help build the pizza. So I searched for a quick pizza dough and found this one. I used a bit more flour (1/4-1/2 cup) than the recipe called for and I added 1 tsp garlic powder and onion powder, 1/4-1/2 tsp dried parsley, thyme and oregano directly to the dough.

I divided the dough in half so I could make two pizzas. I was able to stretch the dough working it by hand and never used the rolling pin. I put down a flexible cutting board, put a piece of aluminum foil on top of that and put the dough right onto the foil. This allows me to heat my stone in the oven so when I put my pizza on it is already hot. The foil also allows me to remove my pizza from the oven without having to take the stone out. This is helpful when making multiple pizzas. I can build a second pizza while the first is baking and not need additional pans.

I lightly dressed one side with pizza sauce and left one side with just olive oil on the crust...two of my children don't like red sauce and one does. I added some grated parmesan and fresh grated mozzarella. Since I divided the dough I only baked for 15 minutes at 400 degrees rather than the recommended 20 minutes at 350 degrees in the recipe.

When making a pizza for myself I love to add chicken, fresh brocolli, black olives, cooked ground turkey, fresh tomatoes, spinach, bacon...well just about anything! Tonight I caramelized onions added fresh mushrooms and black olives.

The only thing I would have changed would have been to add garlic powder on top of the pizza sauce, otherwise the herbs in the crust flavored the pizza beautifully!

Chicken Noodle Soup

I love chicken noodle soup, but do not like it made with chicken broth so I take the time to make chicken stock so my chicken noodle soup is rich and delicious. This is time consuming, but worth the effort in my opinion.

For Stock

5 pounds chicken pieces, wings, backs and necks. (If you purchase whole chickens to cut up for a recipe, you can always remove these parts and freeze them until you have enough to make stock.)
4 quarts cold water
2 onions
3 carrots
3 celery stalks

For Sachet:
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs of fresh parsley
12 whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried

Place the chicken pieces and vegetables in a sturdy roasting pan. You may want to apply a thin layer of oil or spray Pam to the surface to prevent sticking. Roast the chicken and vegetables until the chicken pieces are brown. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a large stock pot.
If there is a lot of fat floating on the surface of the roasting pan, remove it with a spoon but leave the wonderful caramelized juices that are a result of roasting the ingredients. Put the roasting pan on your stove top and add 1 quart of the water. The pan is already hot so be careful and be sure to use your oven mitts.

Using a wooden spoon, scrape any brown bits of chicken or vegetables that may be stuck to the bottom of the pan and mix them into the rest of the liquids. Pour the combined water and juices over the chicken and vegetables in the stock pot.

Add the rest of the water to the stock pot and bring the heat up to high. You want to watch this closely at this point because as soon as the water comes to a boil, you want to reduce the heat to a nice gentle simmer. You will find impurities floating to the top in the form of fat or foam. Remove it with a spoon.

Make your sachet and add it to the pot

Gently simmer for 3 to 4 hours removing any impurities as they form on the surface. When done, remove the sachet and strain the stock through a fine meshed strainer. Let the stock cool and then transfer it to airtight containers and store in the refrigerator for up to a week. You may find a thin layer of fat that has congealed on the surface of the stock after you have refrigerated it. Just scrape it off with a spoon. You can also freeze your brown chicken stock up to 3 months.
You now have a rich, flavorful, important ingredient that you can use to make all sorts of soups and stews.

If your chicken stock does not taste as rich as you would like, put back in to a pot and reduce until you get the delicious flavor you're looking for. And don't add salt!!! If you are saving your stock for use in multiple recipes then you can add and adjust salt with each recipe rather than in the stock.

Now for the chicken soup:

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 lbs chicken cut into one inch cubes (skinless dark or white meat)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 lbs carrots, chopped
2-3 leeks, sliced into 1/2 inch rings
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
5 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried parsley
salt to taste
approx. 4 cups chicken stock
12 oz package egg noodles

In a large pot add olive oil and heat over medium high heat. When oil is hot, add chicken pieces sprinkle with salt. Cook chicken until brown on all sides, add garlic, onions, leeks, carrots, celery, thyme, poultry seasoning, peppercorns, parsley and bay leaves. Continue to cook for 3-5 minutes stirring often. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil then cover and cook for 90 minutes. Check level of liquid, you need enough liquid to add your egg noodles. If you do not have enough liquid, add more stock or water if the liquid is very concentrated. Add egg noodles, cook for 5-10 minutes (depending on size of your noodles).

Homemade Oreo Cookies

Posting this recipe was inspired by my blogging buddy Crash. She had this odd dream about eating fruity oreos and I instantly started thinking of how to make fruity oreos. So I'm taking a favorite recipe and putting a spin on it.

My friend, Tsugumi, joined in a cookie exchange I hosted a few years ago. She brought the BEST oreo cookies. The cookie is soft, cakey and chocolaty. Here is the recipe:

Cookie Ingredients

2 Devil's food cake mixes
1/2 cup flour
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs

Filling Ingredients

8oz package cream cheese
1/2 c butter, softened
6-7 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

For cookies - Combine all ingredients, mix well.
Roll into 1.5 inch balls and place on greased cookie sheet
Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool completely.

For filling - Combine all ingredients, mix well.
you may add milk to thin or powdered sugar to thicken to the correct consistency.
Spread or pipe filling on bottom side of a cookie and top with another cookie to create a sandwich.

Now for the fruity part! You can make fruity oreos by adding orange extract to the filling or you could add fresh fruit or jams. Thinly slice strawberries, bananas, apricots and layer with the filling or mash fresh raspberries and smear a bit on one cookie with cream filling on the other cookie and then sandwich together! You could even add dried cherries. There are many options for fruity oreos :) If the post to Hawaii were not so lengthy I'd make some and send them to you, Crash :)

ABC Salad

My mother-in-law recently discovered this salad and I loved the textures as well as the sweet and sour taste of the dressing. Super simple and all ingredients that I normally have in the house, This recipe is courtesy of Taste of Home.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried cranberries
3 large red apples, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk the oil, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, sugar and salt. Add cranberries; let stand for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, toss apples with remaining lemon juice. Add the broccoli, walnuts and cranberry mixture; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until chilled. Toss before serving. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Trail Mix Cookies

When my in-laws were fighting over the last cookie, I knew this was a recipe I needed to post! This cookie originally started as an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but I've adapted it to suit my family's tastes. I put the oats in a food processor to make a sort of meal or coarse flour instead of using the whole rolled oat. I prefer the chunky part of the cookie to be from dried fruits and nuts rather than the oat itself. You can add in anything you like or use the dough plain to make a smooth oatmeal cookie, this is how my husband really likes it.


1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/3 cups rolled oats (processed into a coarse flour)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional ingredients-
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4-1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, to taste



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.
Thoroughly cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in vanilla and egg.

Add oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt then mix just until dough is formed. Stir in raisins, cranberries, pecans and chocolate chips.

Use a two inch cookie scoop to shape cookies and place 1-2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake 10-11 minutes let cool on pan for 2 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool.


NOTE:
Do not over baked these cookies if you want them soft!!! The cookies will appear under cooked when removed from oven but will continue to cook on the pan. If cooked for more than 10-11 minutes you will have a crunchy cookie.

If you're using the plain dough, place cookies 2 inches apart on pan.
Substitute mini M & M's for the chocolate chips or walnuts for pecans or dried cherries for the cranberries...do whatever sounds good to you!

Crepes

My husband and I were in the kitchen this morning when I opened the fridge, noticing how many left over ingredients we had from Thanksgiving and Christmas fixings. I hate a cramped fridge so my first thought was, "What can we make with oranges and cool whip or whipped cream?" My husband's eyes lit up as he exclaimed, "Crepes!" Brilliant idea, honey!

So we'll start with the crepe batter and then discuss some sweet and savory fillings.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
a pinch of salt

Mix ingredients thoroughly then cover and place batter in the fridge overnight (if you planned far enough in advance). By morning all those little lumps of flour and air bubbles will have dissolved and you'll have a smooth batter. Remove from fridge and let come to room temperature, you may need to add a touch of milk to thin the batter. You're looking for a very thin batter (slightly thicker than water) so it will quickly and easily coat the bottom of your skillet or crepe pan if you own one.

Some prefer to add sugar and vanilla to their batter if they are making sweet crepes, but I like this recipe for both sweet and savory.

Once batter is at room temperature and the correct consistency, heat a medium-sized, nonstick skillet over medium heat and spray lightly with cooking spray. You'll have to play with the next step a bit to adjust for your pan size but start with 1/4 cup of batter. Hold pan in one hand and batter in the other. Pour batter to one side of the pan and at the same time begin to rotate pan to cover the bottom with batter...this may take practice.

You can see in this picture that I did not wait for the batter to settle overnight, there are lumps but you would never know once it's cooked.

Let cook for 30 seconds - 1 minute. Using the edge of a spatula, lift the edge of the crepe to check for doneness...a tiny hint of brown is good, then flip. Cook for another 30 seconds - 1 minute or so and remove from the pan.

Now is the fun part...dressing your crepe. Here are some of my favorite ways to dress up a crepe:

Orange and Sugar - this is a very simple topping but by far a fave! Lightly sprinkle crepe with granulated white sugar then squeeze a fresh orange wedge all over the sugar...not too much or it will feel soggy and dribble. Fold in half then fold in half again to resemble a pie wedge. These don't last very long, we just pick up and eat by hand :) These are equally as delicious with fresh lemon juice.

Strawberry, Pomegranate and Balsamic - I made a lovely strawberry preserve mixture out of frozen strawberries, balsamic vinegar and pomegranate syrup. Slather the preserves onto the crepe and top with fresh whipped cream, roll and eat! Sooo yummy.

Lemon Curd, Mascarpone and Fresh Fruit - Mix equal parts lemon curd and mascarpone cheese, thinly slice apples, pears or strawberries. Slather on lemon cheese mixture, stack on fruit and top with whipped cream. This is particularly lovely because of the textures if using apples or pears. You get a nice crisp bite from the fruit, a slightly tart taste of lemon with a silky, creamy feel from the mascarpone....mmmmmmm.

Chicken, Baby Spinach and Feta - Sweat onions and garlic in olive oil, add chicken strips cut from the breast meat and some red pepper, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. You can add your spinach in this mixture to wilt it or layer it on the crepe if you prefer more texture. Put chicken mix on crepe, sprinkle with crumbled feta and roll.

Tonight we're having a Hawaiian inspired pork crepe. I sweated some onion and garlic then added pork chunks...I only had bone in pork chops in my freezer so I cut the meat from the bone before cooking. Seared the pork, then added soy sauce, brown sugar and crushed pineapple. Top with grated cheddar and viola!

Get creative with your toppings. Try bananas and chocolate, blueberries and whipped cream, the sky is the limit!